


Rewind

by summerbutterfly



Series: MakoRin [3]
Category: Free!
Genre: Backstory, Feels, Headcanon, M/M, Romantic Friendship, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-14
Updated: 2013-08-14
Packaged: 2017-12-23 10:31:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/925314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/summerbutterfly/pseuds/summerbutterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Australia didn't go quite the way Rin expected, but he can't tell that to Makoto.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rewind

**Author's Note:**

> This is all speculation on my part regarding Rin's backstory. Warning for mentions of bullying. Drawn peripherally from some my own experiences, but hopefully Rin's turns out to be better.

Loneliness did things to a person. Changed them. Stole pieces of them away. 

Loneliness was why, three months after leaving for Australia, Rin stopped answering his texts.

It wasn't that he didn't want to talk to anyone. It was that he couldn't. He couldn't tell them about life here, about training, about what is was like to be the new kid _and_ the outsider who had only a shaky grip on the native language at best. He was learning English because he had to, but school gave him headaches and practice made him feel like a pariah. He was also pretty sure he knew every Australian insult for "foreigner" before he'd even gone to his first competition.

Short Course season, he'd done better than he hoped, qualifying well for regionals, and placing well in the 100m finals. But that didn't stop the other kids in his age division from telling him to "go the hell back where he came from" and to "stop stealing their spots." One even shouldered him so hard he almost fell in the water, but no call was made. 

He beat the kid soundly and just missed the podium. 

The kid took it upon himself to piss in Rin's gym bag.

It wasn't much better on his club team. He was a year too young to be on the school team, so he joined up with a club nearby. There was one girl who tried her best to be kind to him, but in the end, the language barrier was too much and it made her too uncomfortable. The rest of the team never bothered, preferring instead to treat him as if he didn't exist. 

Consequently, Rin spent a lot of time on his own.

When he wouldn't return their texts, they tried email. On August 4th, Nagisa told him that he'd _placed 2nd in yesterday's tournament. You should see how much better my start is getting. I'm almost as good as Rin-chan now!_. On August 26th, Makoto told him _Haru's broken your short course team record. He wants to know when you're coming to try and take it back._ Haruka never emailed, but Rin never expected him to. 

Haru wasn't much of a conversationalist.

He deleted both messages, pretending it didn't matter. Pretending it didn't twist the knife deeper into his heart, and that he'd rather be here anyway, learning all he could. The path to his dream wasn't in Japan, it was here, with some of the toughest competition in the world, and the harder they made it, the stronger he would get. 

Then he went home for the New Year and all that reasoning went straight to hell. 

He didn't mean to cry. He actually didn't even care that Haru had beaten him because Haru was so amazing. Haru took swimming to a level that Rin couldn't even begin to imagine, and Rin actually had to remind himself that they were racing and that he _couldn't_ stop and watch. His tears weren't anger, but they shamed him none the less. So he ran as fast as he could, as far as he could, leaving the bewildered Haru behind with no explanation. He made his mom change his plane ticket so he could go back the next day.

He had to leave before the others found out.

Eventually, the emails stopped. Either they'd found out he'd come home and didn't see them and they were angry, or they'd moved on, assuming he was too busy to be their friend. Australia, though, still sucked, and was getting worse now that Rin had moved up an age level. For Long Course season, he was placed on a relay with three boys who had hit their growth spurts over the summer. They towered over him, arms and legs almost as long as Rin was tall. They also outweighed him, outranked him, and outswam him, making him hyper aware of all his shortcomings.

He botched his start in the qualifying heat, just barely managing to keep from jumping too early. 

When he finished, no one helped him out of the pool. 

They replaced him for the finals. The boy they brought in was an almost-fifteen-year-old Australian version of Makoto, tall and lanky, with wide sloping shoulders and a broad, muscular back. He had the courtesy to offer Rin words of encouragement, telling him that when his body caught up to his talent, he'd be taking the swimming scene by storm, but Rin hated him anyway. Not because he took his spot, but because the same day of that incident, the _real_ Makoto decided to be a sneaky bastard and send Rin a letter by post.

He opened it against his better judgement. It was filled with stupid stuff, like what it was like now that Makoto's younger siblings were about to start school, how Haruka went with them on their family camping trip, and descriptions of the stray mama cat who'd given birth to three kittens that he and Haruka were now taking turns taking care of. It was also hand-written, and it made Rin cry so hard he was almost sick.

He kept it in his desk drawer, reading it when the days were particularly bad. 

It was the only other thing aside from clothes and a few souvenirs for Gou that Rin brought back with him when he decided, two months later, to come home. 

*~*~*~*

Makoto finds the letter in Rin's room during semester break.

"You...you still have this?" 

Since he's holding the evidence, Rin can't deny it, so he just shrugs. "So what?"

"So I didn't think you'd even _read_ , never mind keep it." 

Rin rolls over on his bed and pretends to check his phone. "I read it," he says. "And I didn't throw it out. It's not a big deal."

"But it _is_ a big deal." Rin feels the mattress shift and suddenly Makoto is leaning over him, all smiles. "It means RinRin is still a romantic, no matter how grumpy he pretends to be." 

Rin side-eyes him. "Did you seriously just call me 'RinRin'?"

"Only because you called me 'Mako' the other night."

"What? When?"

"When you were sucking me off." 

Rin rolls abruptly to his back. Caught off -guard, Makoto falls onto his chest, but he buries his face in Rin's shoulder before they can make eye contact. Rin, however, is not going to let him get away that easy, and he tugs Makoto's hair.

"Did you just say something dirty?" he demands.

"No." Makoto's voice is muffled, and the tips of his ears are pink. 

"Liar." Rin grins. "You said 'suck me off!'"

"I did _not_!" Makoto burrows, as if he's trying to slip inside Rin's skin, and Rin tries not to laugh, but it's awkwardly funny.

"I think that's the first time you've ever used dirty words without me prompting you, Mako-chan. I'm...kind of excited." 

Makoto finally looks up. His cheeks are tinted, but his green eyes are bright and mischievous and Rin wants to kiss him so badly it hurts.

"I'm learning," Makoto murmurs. "But I'll be honest. It's sometimes hard because you still feel like a stranger to me. And the things you like to hear aren't the kinds of things I'd say to someone I didn't know." 

Makoto strokes his hair and Rin feels his throat constrict.

"That's a stupid thing to worry about," Rin manages. "It's fun and we're not hurting anybody. Why get hung up on the details?" 

"Because," Mokoto says. "I want our friendship to be real again. And I just don't feel like the dirty talk and fooling around are doing anything to bring us closer." 

Rin suddenly can't breathe. He wants to get away but even now, even after he's grown again and packed on more muscle, Makoto's still stronger and still outweighs him. 

Makoto cups Rin's cheek. "Tell me what happened in Australia."

"There's nothing to tell." He can't jerk away without hurting himself. Fucking Makoto.

"But you trained hard, right? And won some stuff? Gou said..."

"Gou talks too much about things she shouldn't be talking about. I said there is nothing to tell, and I mean it. There is nothing to tell. Let it go."

Makoto's pained expression hits him hard, but he gets what he wants and Makoto releases him, sitting back on his heels. Rin sits up too, feeling bad, and goes for the tactic that works every other time he's (recently) made Makoto upset. 

"I'm sorry," he says softly, "and I need a shower. Wanna come with me?"

Makoto looks like he needs some encouragement so Rin slips out of his shirt. Makoto inhales and touches him, his fingers warm against Rin's chest. Rin smiles and tilts his head. There's a delicious moment of tension, where Makoto's eyes go dark and he licks his lips, but then he's gone and Rin is alone on the bed.

Surprise renders Rin speechless, and he can only stare as Makoto shrugs on his jacket. "Not this time," Makoto says. "Maybe tomorrow."

Rin nods and Makoto leaves.

The space around Rin is suddenly very, very empty.


End file.
